Jamme 863 is a little-known "South Arabian" inscription from Yemen. My drawing of Jamme's drawing is displayed above. The drawing and their translation were published in 1955, and the transliteration and translation read as follows:
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| b | 1. Šarḥum, | ||||
| ’ | y | y | ḏ | š | 2. he of [the family of] Barlum, |
| ḏ | ḥ | ‘ | b | r | 3. respects [and] |
| n | m | ẓ | r | ḥ | 4. protects |
| ḏt | y | m | l | m | 5. in obedience to Ḏât-Ḥ[imyâm]. |
| ḥ | m |
It is a viable translation epigraphically, but the ḏt that they posit is in fact a logogram for illu (see the previous post on the Wadi el-Hol Inscriptions). This makes it very unlikely that the following ḥ is somehow related to Ḏât-Ḥimyâm. The other problem is that the character they posit as a ḏ, which at the time was reasonable, is now in light of the Wadi el-Hol Inscriptions more likely to be identified as h.
Hence I propose the reading be flipped and it be treated as a pre-South Arabian inscription paleographically. I also propose that from the first character in their Column 5 to the last character in their Column 4, in which the y is reversed in orientation, be treated as a single sentence. Likewise the next three columns should also be treated as a single sentence. Additionally, the character in their Column 5 they treat as n, I treat as another final form of l. Obviously the column numbers in my reading are reversed.
With those slight revisions I see the following:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| b | | | | | 1. In the tent, Illu li- |
| ’ | y | y | h | š | 2. ves and protects. |
| h | ḥ | ‘ | b | r | 3. May he respect [supplicate?] |
| l | m | ẓ | r | ḥ | 4. [He], Heber, to the Lo- |
| [Illu] | y | m | l | m | 5. rd, the Merciful. |
| ḥ | | | m | | |
While seemingly odd, the simplicity of the translation is at least striking. The confluence of Arabian and Northwest Semitic terminology and grammar along with the proto-South Arabian paleography could also answer some questions. Surprisingly, I have not been able to find any later published translations or analysis of this inscription. It is absent from the Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions (CSAI).
For reference, here is a very good chapter of North Arabian including a chart of letters on page 496.
http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/aalc/images/stories/mcam_ancient_north_arabian.pdf
I think (now) that HBR is most likely not a name, but rather an interesting construction with the Ugaritic root HBR - 'to bow', and thus reading: "In the tent, Illu li/ves and protects. / He offers respect / [he], the one who bows to the Lo/rd, the Merciful."
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